


You're Beautiful (Good Lord You're Beautiful)

by VeryImpressive



Series: Distraction [5]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Nightwing (Comics)
Genre: BruDick feels, Bruce Feels, Bruce and Dick were made for each other, Brudick - Freeform, Dimension Travel, Everyone Has Issues, Gay Male Character, Look it Up, M/M, Male Slash, NIGHTWING BOOTAY, Slash, Time Travel, Young Bruce Wayne, alternative universe, it is canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-20
Updated: 2016-12-05
Packaged: 2018-07-16 04:42:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7252504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VeryImpressive/pseuds/VeryImpressive
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dick gets sucked back through space and time - into an alternate dimension where Bruce never found Batman. </p>
<p>Now he's stuck with a Bruce that's just as old as he is, and one that incidentally keeps trying get into his pants, and in a world where he never even existed and he has no idea when he's getting home. </p>
<p>[Companion to "Distraction", "Swat", "Birthday" and "I Don't Care (Take Me Anywhere")] [BruDick]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is going to be a larger installment to the Distraction series - it won't be novel length, but it should end up with a good 10,000-15,000 words when the entire project is completed. The idea occurred to me while watching an episode of Friends the other day, the one where they all imagine what it would have been like if the things that brought them all together didn't happen. 
> 
> I thought it would be a cute idea to apply to this universe, and when I was writing it out - it just sort of grew into this small, but comparatively large story. 
> 
> I hope you'll enjoy it and I hope you'll come back for the next chapter and the next installment in the series overall!

**Part I: The Party**

**Dick Grayson's Point of View**

“I’m Bruce, and who might you be?” Bruce was leering at me.

Like I didn’t know who he was, like he wasn’t the most important person in my entire life, like I couldn’t spot him from a mile away.

The only problem with that was that this Bruce didn’t know that, he didn't know that I was one of two people that knew him the best, knew him for what he was. Only I and Alfred really understood that underneath Batman, there was a cold, tired, scared little boy that just wanted to feel safe. Where others dismissed him as cruel, heartless man, there was always a method to his madness. I could only assume that this Bruce either hadn’t begun the journey in his life that took him to Batman, or he hadn’t made that journey at all – but I knew that it wasn’t right.

This wasn’t my Bruce.

But at the same time, it was – they were all my Bruce, no matter what dimension I was in.

This one was young, perhaps as young as I was – and he was noticeably softer than the Bruce Wayne that I had come to know and love. He was well-built, obviously – and just as impeccably handsome as he had been his entire life, but he was leaner – younger. He didn’t have the scars and the battle wounds that years as Batman had given him. He was Bruce Wayne, still Bruce Wayne – and no matter the outcome, it provided me with a unique opportunity of seeing him before he picked up the mantle. This experience, no matter the danger in the unknown - would provide me with a look into Bruce Wayne before the nights became cold - when everything was just slightly easier than it was in the present - when Bruce was able open up far more easily.  

Everything was screaming at me to turn around and leave.

There was another side of me though, a side of me that was stronger.

A side of me that had always, always been drawn in by him.

“I’m Dick,” I took a sip of the champagne and smiled at him.

“Well, Dick – it’s nice to meet you,” He hummed rather leisurely and took a quick look around the ballroom of Wayne Enterprises before focusing his attention squarely back onto me.

Holy mother of god.

Those damn eyes of his were fucking _hypnotizing_ – even now.

“And if I may ask, _Dick_ – how did such a breath of fresh air such as yourself just wander into this party?” Bruce took a single step further, drink grasped in one hand and his gaze utterly unyielding. The _intensity_ with which he spoke was astounding, even to someone that knew him – or rather a version of him – like I did. What we were talking about wasn’t even that serious.

“I just wandered in,” I shrugged and then I finally let a little grin onto my face. “And if I may ask – considering your reputation, why aren’t your spending your time with the more buxom members of this crowd. Aren’t you supposed to be some sort of philandering playboy?”

“Well baby, I’m trying, but you’re not making it easy on me?” Bruce grinned back.

Well damn, if that didn’t make me blush like a schoolgirl.

I could count the number of times that Bruce had genuinely grinned at me like that on one hand, and for some reason – I could almost see that this time was genuine as well. It was sexy beyond all words – and standing there, in the middle of this ballroom – the mere sight of it sent a fire spreading out through my lower belly. It was a fire that I was normally, for the most part – able to put it out with the help of Bruce – but it was only with the Bruce Wayne that I knew.

The Bruce Wayne that was twelve years older than I was – not my age.

Not this man… barely turned from a boy.

“Mr. Wayne,” I choked down the feelings that the sight of his teeth blasted through me and stepped back slightly. “I’m sure that there are some fine young ladies here that would l-…”

And I suppose that it was a part of my comfort around anything that was Bruce Wayne that kept me from stepping back from his sudden, forward advance towards me. An advance that caused me to fall back behind a bolt of billowing black curtains that encased the grand ballroom.

I dropped the champagne glass as Bruce’s hands drifted down to my ass-cheeks and he’s mouth came right up to my ear. “Dick, I’ve had my eye on you since you walked into this place – I’m not going to force you to do anything you don’t want to do, but please don’t turn me down.”

I could feel his hard cock grinding into my equally rigid one and I gasped.

“I-I didn’t know that you were into men?” I bit out.

Bruce wasn’t gay as much as he would sleep with anything that he found appealing.

Thankfully, and hopefully – the object of that arousal would be me, and only me – and it was nice to know that in this time, or in this universe, I wasn’t entirely sure, it was still me.

“I’m into any grown man or woman that arouses my interest, and you aroused me the moment I laid my eyes on you,” He removed his hands from my body, thank god – and placed both of them on the wall on either side of my head. His single-minded determination was rather sweet, in a way. “If you tell me no – I’ll let you be, but I hope you don’t mind if I watch you leave.”

I bit my lip slightly and noticed him repeat the same action.

My mind was at a total loss.

Bruce was Bruce – no matter what time or universe we were in.

He was just as hands-on and just as obsessed with my backside as he was when he was older – the only difference was that he laid it on a little bit thicker and the flirting was far more open.

Flirts with my Bruce were tenderly whispered secrets in complete and utter privacy.

That was what I was used to.

“There’s a solarium upstairs that will give us complete privacy,” His lips drifted down my neck and I repressed the shiver. “You’re gonna’ break my heart if you stand me up baby.”

With a swiftness that I was sure that he didn’t know he possessed, he pulled away from me and left me to my frazzled thoughts. He left me with more of a conundrum then I should have been facing and a conundrum that he had no blasted idea that he was foisting upon me.

I idly toyed with the idea of telling him – and I didn’t want to think of the reaction that he would have.

The ability of my ass to make Bruce Wayne drool may transcend time and space, but that didn’t include judgement on my sanity. If I went up there, and told him the truth, that he and I knew each other about as intimately as two people possibly could, and the _full_ scope of our relationship, he’d probably send me away. He’d probably think that I was a stone cold nut-job.

On the other hand I never been able to resist him – no matter what guise he wore.

There was no telling what would happen if I actually went up there.

I was screwed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note: for the purposes of our story, the POV differences between Prime-Bruce and Alternate Bruce will be marked as such: for PrimeBruce! He will be referred to in the introduction bracket simply as "Bruce" and for AlternateBruce! He will be referred to as "Bruce Wayne". This distinction shouldn't have to be worried about too much though, as we won't see much of PrimeBruce until the end. This is, after all, Dick's journey on what life would be like without Batman, this is the entire crux of this installment. 
> 
> Otherwise - the response to the story has been so overwhelming! Thank you so much! 
> 
> Without any further waiting, here's the next installment in this little diddy - I hope you enjoy it!

**Part II: The Office**

**Bruce Wayne’s Point of View**

It had been a year since I assumed total control of the company.

After my parents were killed, it was revealed to me that I would only receive my _full_ inheritance upon graduating college with my degree _or_ turning thirty.

My parents had left the entire Wayne Empire to me, and left their entire fortune to me. From the moment that I turned sixteen, I had been receiving my inheritance in hundred million dollar increments. For normal people, that would have been enough, that was more money than most people could ever spend in a lifetime – but that money was the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

When I graduated from college, I received the entire monetary side of my inheritance in one lump sum – as well as access to the Wayne Family Trust which held the bulk of the Wayne Fortune. The monetary lump sum was an eleven-digit figure, and that enormous figure only accounted for the liquid cash that had been frozen upon the murder of both of my parents. 

It didn't account for the Wayne Family Trust - which fell under my complete control upon receiving my inheritance. 

It had been building since the first of the Wayne Family began to strike out in business hundreds of years ago, and we had holdings so deep that we didn’t know the full scope of it. I remembered from my childhood from when my father attempted to fully audit the entire trust and the _highest_ number that he got to was a total of $94 Billion – and he didn’t even finish it.

With all of that, I inherited outright majority control of the company from my father’s share-holdings, which had been placed in the trust from the moment that he was declared legally dead.

I was, in fact – the richest person on the planet in technicality – but that did nothing to assure my control over the company.

I had to wield power with an iron fist, I had to make sure that the people that ran the company in the absence of a Wayne were not plotting against me.

When I took control, I carefully and very quietly sent them out of Gotham and into exile, and assumed sole control of Gotham City – and this solidified my control over the corporation.  

They were all snakes in the grass, and if left unsupervised, and if they forgot who was in charge, they would begin to plot.

That was why I was holding this gala – that was why I was holding it in Gotham, it was part power-play, part political theater, and part business necessity. It brought the vultures who attempted to feast on my family’s name into line and to heel like the dogs they were. They had to come to Gotham to pay tribute to their King or they’d find themselves sent to gallows.

Alfred often teased me – saying my methods were taken directly from the Sun King.

Louis XIV, King of France - who had watched his father's privileged class attempt to rebel and go against the will of the King. When he came to the throne, his indomitable will and his drive to not fall victim like his Father caused him to become one of the most powerful rulers in history. He built the Palace of Versailles, moved the Government to the Palace and made it law that his noble class were required to live in the palace for a portion of the year. It served the purpose of Louis keeping an eye on the nobles and consolidating his Imperial Power over his country.

If you disobeyed, you were exiled or executed. 

He didn’t quite understand that I took that to heart and I embraced it.

This was _my_ company, it was _my_ birthright – it might have been a public company, it might have had shareholders to answer to daily and a Board of Directors – but my family had built it from the ground up. I was the head executive and I chaired that Board of Directors – and no opportunists would take it from me. Even if I had to employee ruthless, absolutist methods.

And like Louis XIV – my upper division executives would get in line or be eliminated.

But as I turned away from my desk and turned down to peer through the one-way mirror panel that looked down into the ballroom, my eyes found _him_ and a scowl came to my face.

Everyone who was important to me knew of my proclivities.

It was just accepted that I could do what I wanted as long as it was legal – and from the moment I laid my eyes on him, I just wanted to pin him down on my father’s desk and fuck the ever loving shit out of him.

It was as if some unknown force had made this stranger my singular focus, everything else was blocked out in soft-filter and the only thing that I could see was him.

The singular focus was now bent on making the man _contract_ in pleasure and it was damned insane - but not really surprising in hindsight. 

Dick had legs that went on for days and an ass that would make me surrender my fortune.

But aside from that, he was so physically stunning that it was hard for me to control myself when I finally managed to corner him on the ballroom floor. It didn’t matter if he literally did just wander in – he was the most exciting and attractive person, beside myself, at the party and I wasn’t going to let gate-crashing get in the way. I did check, and he was not on the guest-list, but again, that would not hamper my motives. I was a Wayne, and in Gotham City, members of my family got what they wanted, unconditionally and without any hint of a question.

What I wanted was him - I had been suffering from a perpetual hard-on from the moment that I saw him. 

What I wanted was to throw him down on the floor, do the naughtiest things to him – keep him wrapped up in my bed and spoil him like no other person had ever been spoiled before.

But I couldn’t quite shake the fact that I was missing something with him.

Something about Dick was eluding me and it was driving me utterly insane.

Hopefully I would get it out of him when he was riding me on my desk.

* * *

**Dick’s Point of View**

Bruce had always lived large.

Even as a very modest man, it was almost in his genes that he had to live large – he controlled one of the largest private fortunes in human history.

Usually though, Bruce threw his financial weight around through supporting his activities as Batman, or mine as Nightwing, or even the Justice League. Bruce didn’t let me in on the financials of Batman often, but he did let it slip once, in an extremely rare moment of absentmindedness, that he spent upwards of hundreds of millions of dollars in weaponry for Batman alone.

As I was quickly learning, it only made sense that the same principle applied to _this_ Bruce – but applied in another direction entirely.

This Bruce, who showed no sign of being Batman, was the heir to the Wayne Fortune and he was not afraid to show it, not at all.

The corridor leading towards Bruce’s solarium was lined in polished _marble_ and _granite_.

Standing in front of the door, almost as if it was standing guard, was a _solid_ gold lion.

And I had no doubt that the damned thing was gold to the center – it fit with the motif.

* * *

  **Prime Universe**

**Bruce’s Point of View**

_I don’t know where he went._

That was what the damned witch had been saying for the past thirteen hours – thirteen hours that involved my personal interrogation.

I had been employing every method that I knew to break her, short of torture and she could not provide me with an answer. It was only my forcible removal from the Watch Tower by Tim and Damian that I didn’t mull over the idea of torturing her. The only reason that she wasn't chained in the Batcave and subjected to every conceivable mental strain that I could force upon her was because of Dick, because of how he would react to that.  She did know though, she _knew_ where she sent him in her blind firing – and I’d tear her apart to find out where she sent him.

Tim and Damian _knew_ that I would do it too – if left unrestrained.

“You need to sleep Father,” Damian murmured from the seat at the computer.

“You’ve been up for three days, Dick is going to throw a fit once he finds out what you’ve done,” Tim insisted for what seemed to be the hundredth time in the past hour. “Now go to bed – _now_ , I’ll finish analyzing the wand, and I’ll pull together something that we can go on.”

I took a deep breath in, and stilled the simmering anger that had been threatening to run over the surface since the moment I watched Dick disappear.

It wasn't their fault - it wasn't their fault, I couldn't blame them for it and I couldn't take it out on them. 

I then turned to Tim and fixed him with what could best be described as a dead expression. I was doing my utmost best not to explode at him – and I had to admit that his pressuring was not helping in that effort – but I was able to hold onto it.

Just barely.

“I need him back Tim,” I groused at him.

“We all do,” Tim reasoned – and even though his tone was joking, I didn’t so much as bat an eye at it. I just was not in the mood to take things lightly – I wasn’t in the mood for humor.

I needed Dick back.

I needed him back in my bed.

* * *

  **Bruce Wayne's Point of View**

The only audible noises in the office was the lewd sound of flesh slapping against flesh.

The office had been purposely designed to drown out all outside noise if the inhabitant so wished it, and I wished it. I wanted nothing more than to remember every single excruciatingly erotic moment of this encounter. Dick’s pants tossed haphazardly in the floor behind us, mine around my ankles, Dick’s ankles locked around my waist as I drove into him – over and over.

My hands drifted down to the swell of his perfect ass and I squeezed.

“Where did you get these?” I breathed as I nipped at his neck.

That almost rhetorical question was followed by a torturous groan ripped my lips.

Dick’s hands and drifted down my open shirt and his nail were scratching into me.

The feel of that scratch left a delicious burn in my mid-section and my stomach contracted in its wake. The tactile over-stimulation compelled me to thrust into his body _faster_.

“Where’d you get these?” Dick replied with hiss, his hands lingering my abdominal muscles. The sounds of his breathy voice left me lightheaded and almost yearning for more.

“I asked first,” I nipped at him again and squeezed his cheeks.

Dick’s breathy moan was intermingled with a curt laugh, “I was in the circus.”

Fuck – where had this guy been all of my life?


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was asked what this story is - and by extension, what this entire series is, summed up in a sentence. 
> 
> This entire series is a little bit of fluff, a little bit of smut and a little bit of story wrapped up in a little bit of effort.
> 
> It may be self-deprecating, but for real, if you're in this for a Shakespearean Romance, you're in the wrong place. I traffic in trashy-harlequin-esque romance novels in this series, nothing more. This one just has a little bit longer of a story then usual.

**Part III: Bluntness**

**Bruce Wayne’s Point of View**

“So you’re not an escort then?” I murmured into his neck.

There were few people alive that had the ability to drive me _this_ nuts, and the thought did occur to me when he and I moved onto my desk.

I wondered if Dick had been specifically training to push all of my buttons. He had though, he had managed to push every single button that I had, and it seemed to me that he didn‘t even realize that he was doing it. Every single rise of his lean chest seemed to cause bolts of excitement to shoot through my body – he just had to be have been a damned prostitute.

Maybe he had been hired by a member of the board – a rival, perhaps he had a camera on him. Perhaps one of the men that had controlled the company after my father’s death had used this man to end my career before it really began. Perhaps he was going to do me in, perhaps he was going to be the reason that Wayne Enterprises would not be run by a Wayne.

The quaking chest beside me drew my eyes to him, and when I looked down to the man laying down in the crook of my arm – he had a look of genuine amusement on his face.

I had just insinuated that he was a paid sex worker and here he was, laughing as if it was the funniest joke he’d ever heard. If he had been one of the society women downstairs, I would have expected the outcome of this joke to be pain, not for it to be light laughter. If I had just told one of my board members daughters that they were a hooker, they would have slapped the hell out of me - and I would be hearing all about my sexual escapades at the next board meeting and I would be forced into threatening the man into backing down from his fight.  

“I am _not_ a hooker,” Dick locked eyes with me. “Bruce, I know that you’re obsessively paranoid, but it is possible for something like this to be innocent. I came here because I like you.”

I frowned slightly.

Not for the first time since I had met him, something off struck me about Dick Grayson - it was his kindness maybe, the fact that it was so goddamned genuine. Genuine kindness was something rare in this world - and it was virtually unheard of in the business world - that attitude could end careers if gone too far with it. Maybe Dick was simply not in the business world, There was something about him that told me that he knew me though, as if we knew each other. I knew for a fact that I had never met him, but he acted as if he had – as if we had known each other our whole lives. That was something that someone in my position rarely encountered unless it was true, unless that person did know me, completely and utterly.

The simple fact of the matter was that I was one of the richest people in the world – and in the history of humanity.

My family controlled one of the largest private fortunes in the world – and more often than not, my partners simply wanted to be with me because money did grow on trees in my world.

“What if I told you that I want to take to Paris, fuck you on a pile of money, and then let you keep the money, would you be up for it?” I raised a single eyebrow and slowly snaked my arm around his midsection.

“I’m up for it, but you don’t have to waste that money on me – I’m telling you,” Dick adopted a serious expression - god his eyes were stunning, surrounded by delicate, almost feminine features. It still managed to take my breath away, even after the sex - was was rare. “I’m serious, I’d be satisfied on the plane – we don’t need to fuck on a million dollars in cash, Bruce.”

I did not need to hear anymore.

I didn’t need Dick to say another word.

I just pulled him on top of me and shoved my tongue down his throat.

If he turned out to be an escort, he – know it or not – belonged to me, and I had the unfortunate of not letting go.

I wondered if he knew what he was getting himself into.

* * *

 

**Dick’s Point of View**

My backside ached something fierce.

It was not the first time that he, or at least a version of him, had done this to the point where my ass was hurting. When he and I had first begun our relationship – it was something that neither of us could avoid. He was as insatiable as I was back then – and to a certain extent, it hadn’t cooled between us. We had just settled into things, it became normal for us both.

With this Bruce though – it was like reliving it.

Except this Bruce was basically my age, and had the same energy and the same libido. This was new to him, and the degree of the exhaustion that I was feeling was rather surprising to me. It surprised me because sex with my Bruce was tantric in it's length and form, and intense in all of the moves made – and Bruce took pleasure in making me squirm in my own skin.

This Bruce was fast, in a hurry and in rush to dominate me.

It was an overwhelming feeling – to experience both sides of an extremely polarized being like Bruce Wayne.

After this experience, I was sure that he was the only being that had this ability to hang me out to dry.

That being said, I had to get home.

As good as it was, as much as there was a burning need with me, I did not belong here – I did not belong in this place. It was Gotham, it was the headquarters of Wayne Enterprises, it was Bruce, younger, but still Bruce – but it was not the place where I ultimately belonged. It wasn’t the place where my life was based and where I needed to spend my weird life.

I had a life with Bruce Wayne – Batman.

I had Damian, I had Barbara, Jason – Tim, my friends – my family, and I needed them in my life. I couldn’t remain in a place where I didn’t exist, where I didn’t know Bruce Wayne – where my loved ones weren’t who I knew them to be, where some of them didn’t even exist. It wasn’t fair to me – and it was fair to this Bruce, despite whatever delusion that he held.

I would not be staying here.

Looking back to the lounge sofa, where Bruce’s naked body was covered with a beautifully knit Afghan – I tugged my briefs higher at my waist and slowly made my way to the window. I hadn’t quite gotten to see the view earlier, but I was determined to see it. Like with many things in this world, I would be able to tell the difference with almost a glance.

I spent my entire life swinging from the buildings of the city, I knew them just as well as I knew the back of my hand.

I wondered how this Gotham was different.

It wasn’t all that different – at least from a bird’s eye perspective.

Wayne Enterprise’s Corporate World Headquarters was significantly larger then it was in my world – the ballroom downstairs was proof of that. I could safely say that this Bruce Wayne, and that this Wayne Family had lived up their reputation as the royal family of this city. '

They had turned their headquarters into their castle, into their seat of power and Gotham wasn’t just their fiefdom, it was their Kingdom and they ruled it with an iron fist.

“There’s a storm in that pretty head of yours,” Bruce said quietly.

It was a rhetorical question, obviously.

Bruce’s magnificent brain had always been useful for him, and made him far too smart for his own good. It also made life for those who lived with him and tried to keep things secret from him a miserable stinking hell. When I was a child, for the obvious reasons – I could never get away with anything without him knowing. Bruce knew everything that I did back then, if he didn’t say anything – it was simply because he judged it to be unimportant.

If I did something bad – which I hardly ever did, I’d get it in the neck.

Jason, Tim and then Damian had it easier – I was the one that had to do all of the breaking in with Bruce, but even they had to be subjected to it some of the timee].

It seemed that it was the same here in this universe.

I stilled slightly, and tried to suppress it as best I could when Bruce’s form appeared in the mirror and came up from behind me to wrap his arms around my midsection and pull me into him. I almost groaned when he went straight to my neck – and not for the reason that he would have suspected.

I was becoming tired of this - slowly, but most assuredly. 

“I have a lot on my mind, that’s all,” I answered simply.

How did someone approach the topic?

If he threw me out now – I would either have to wait for Bruce to find a way to retrieve me, which would take god knows how long, or I would run the risk of being stuck here forever.

Without Batman, without Nightwing, without the Justice League – without any form of support that I was used to and that was a terrifying idea 

“Are you sure you’re not a hooker?” I felt him grin on my neck.

I smiled, in spite of myself, “I’m sure.”

“So why don’t you tell me what’s wrong, and if there’s any way that I can fix it for you?” He hummed again and his fingers drifted down to the patch of stomach right above my pubic bone.

Again, in spite of what I was feeling, I leaned into it and sighed – it did feel good – it did comfort me.

He was still Bruce Wayne - if not a different version of Bruce Wayne. 

“It’s the least you could do?” I turned to him slightly, raising an eyebrow – and I had to admit that I was only half joking when I said that.

Half of me was dead fucking serious.

“I just had some of the best sex of my entire life,” He pulled back from my neck and grinned – and I followed his line of sight when he turned back and to his left to the file cabinet on the side of the desk. My Bruce kept money and other expensive things there “There is a trap door under the file cabinet with a safe in it, inside is a million dollars in cash and my great-grandmother’s 35 carat blue diamond engagement ring that is literally worth 22 times as more than the cash in the safe. If you need ask, and I would give you both – I’ll do anything you ask of me.”

I felt that damned fluttering feeling that I got whenever Bruce, or whatever version of Bruce – decided to be sweet on me and spoil me.

I knew that if I didn’t do it now – if I didn’t approach the subject, I’d never do it.

“Does Wayne Enterprises have an experimental sciences division?” It was a garbled question – a question that seemed to be well thought out.

I didn’t need to hear him verbally express his shock – his breathing said it all.

I would have laughed if I wasn’t actually interested in the answer.

It was one of the few times that I’d ever seen him speechless.

I wanted to be blunt – I got blunt.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This took soooo long to do - but here it is, I'm not entirely happy with it, but after suffering several rewrites, this was the best thing I could land on. 
> 
> I hope you like it!

**Part IV: Nonsense**

The Experimental Sciences Division, or the _Applied Sciences Division_ as it was known on the very few internal records that we kept on it – was top secret. Any knowledge of it, outside of myself, a few members of the Board of Directors, and our liaisons in the Government, required a security clearance from The Pentagon and several sites were secured by US Marines. 

There were even some projects inside of the ESD that needed clearance from the Central Intelligence Agency to even get near, let alone work on.

Was it overkill? No – certainly not.

After all, the things that we developed there would be used by the United States Military and other agencies, they had every right to ensure that their investments were secure. 

If they forked over the money, I was more than happy to facilitate the time, the work, the security and the talent of the world’s most brilliant minds to accomplish their goals.

With a total of twelve figures in contracts, assets, funds and awaiting contracts, assets and funds – it was easily the biggest division in the entire company.

In any other company, it would be the jewel in the crown – it would be a marvel of modern business to pull in that much money – but it wasn’t. The group of people, outside of the division itself, that were supposed to know about it were tightly controlled, and we knew everyone who had knowledge of it. That was first and foremost in my mind when I heard those words slip out of Dick’s mouth. My mind flashed to massive security breaches, plots - movements by unseen enemies to destroy everything that I had turned this company into. 

He was, quite simply, not supposed to know about it. 

We kept a tight leash on everyone who knew about it and there was no way that he could have discovered this information on his own - there was no hint to the public of it's existence and it's actual activities. Everyone  aware of the existence of the ESD of Wayne Enterprises was known – and it was highly unlikely that our security procedures had allowed for a breach.

Maybe it had though, maybe one of the techs had gotten word to Dick.

Or whoever he worked for.

“How do you know about that?” I breathed out.

I wasn’t quite sure how to react to Dick now, I wasn’t going to directly accuse him of anything, he could be dangerous, he could but a hitman, he could be bait that was meant for me.

He could innocent – he could be an innocent man.

“I know a lot of things Bruce,” He answered – his were lips pursed in slight hesitation and thought, and I knew straight away what was now going on in that pretty little head of his.

He was attempting to plot his next move, and if he was wise, he’d be planning three moves ahead for every move. I hoped that he was now aware that he was in a chest game and that he had to be at his absolute best to win the contest. If he lost, I'd have him flogged publicly and I'd give him to the Miltary, who would need to know why he was snooping for the ESD.

If it came to that, I would want to that – I didn’t need the burden of trying to protect him or trying to breaking him. 

“Listen, and you need to listen well – you need to tell me how you know about something that you are not supposed to know,” I was trying to be a clear, cut and conscience over this point – because it was very much true. “If you don’t – I’ll have to hand you over to the US Military, and I can promise you this Dick, I have a sunnier disposition than their agents at the black sites.”

If the military were to learn of this – they would arrest Dick, and stash him in a black site where he didn’t exist anymore, and where he was no longer human. They would inflict tortures on him that were meant to break their subjects as quickly as possible – and by that time, they would demand to know who he was working for, or Dick would disappear until he was old and gray. 

“I’m not too worried about that,” Dick’s voice sounded light as he turned back away from me and looked out the expansive window. “I’ll tell you everything that you need to know – I just need you to promise me that you’ll listen – that you’ll listen before you react to anything I say.”

It was a loaded attempt – I could tell.

What did he have to tell me that I hadn’t already figured out myself?

One of the technicians of the division was selling secrets, or leaking hints of its existence to people that shouldn’t know.

Or, a senior member of my Board of Directors was selling secrets, in attempt to make money, or to undermine my position and my authority over the company.

Had the snakes managed to get through?

Someone in  my position didn’t find himself boxed into a corner very often – but here I was, facing that corner.

Perhaps it was the security surrounding the ESD that was forcing me to listen to him – perhaps it was the fact that in all of my life, I had never had better sex with anyone else.

In any case, I now had no choice but to stop – listen and hope that I didn’t have to report him.

Swallowing the lump that had formed in my throat – I looked back to my chair and sat down in it. The few circumstances that I would allow him to leave after this seemed unlikely – and he was either going to tell me how he found out about the ESD, and then I could deliver my wrath about upon that source. Or he wasn’t going to tell me, and I would be forced to have Federal Agents come and arrest him – and then I would find out the source of the critical leak.

And then I would have to plug it.

“This is your one chance to explain yourself,” I sat my hands in my lap and looked up to him – and affected the expression that I had when I was forced to deal with real unpleasantness.

* * *

 

There was silence, _unabated_ silence.

With my back turned from him, I stood at the small bar table in the corner of my office and slowly, carefully poured some brandy into a crystal class.

It was something to distract from the silence that had engulfed the office – anything, for me not to bust out in absurd laughter.

Or just stare at him as if he was a space alien.

If I were an ordinary person, I would assume that the beautiful man in front of me was insane. Even if I had thought that, I wouldn’t have meant that in a derogatory context – logically, his explanation of dimensional travel sounded as if it was the creation of a severally mentally ill person. If I had no knowledge of the things that that the Experimental Science Division had discovered and invented in their time – it would have been the only explanation behind this.

Raising the glass to my lips, I took a sharp look at the windows looking down into the ballroom and took a small sip of the burning liquid.

When the liquor was down my throat, I set the glass down – closed my eyes and took a deep breath – trying to find the rights words to say.

“Say this division does exist?” I still had my eyes closed. “How could _I_ help you?”

“You might not be the only one who could help me,” Dick’s voice was quiet – obviously weak, but with an admirable sense of false strength lacing it. “But you’re the only one that I _knew_ could help me – if you didn’t want to help me. You’re the only hope that I have now.”

I wanted to roll my eyes – it sounded all so dramatic.

What was so terrible about being in this universe, considering what his universe sounded like? Insane criminals? Alien invasions? A grown man dressing up as a bat and pounding the hell out of criminals at night? It sounded terrible. It sounded like a scenario of nightmares – the Gotham Police Department being so utterly incompetent that they needed a version of me to deal with their criminal elements. It would sound almost fictional if I wasn’t sure that it was real.  

When I first assumed control of the company, I began to provide the Gotham Police Department with state of the art weaponry, armor, vehicles and technology.

The effect on the crime rate was seen nearly overnight, to the point where violent crime, which had been at double digit levels for decades, decreased to single percentage points. Most of that was concentrated in poorer areas, but for the most part – violent crime was nearly eradicated, and the violent crime that did happen was quarantined, and very tightly controlled. 

That being said - that version of Gotham didn't deserve Dick. 

Dick Grayson was incredibly attractive, he was attractive beyond words even.

If I had him, if he was truly mine – I would make sure that he never had the slightest worry for the rest of his life. Never would he have to worry about killer freaks in face paint, terrorizing the town and trying to kill him. He would never have to suffer another damn tragedy.

But most of all – I would tell him how special he was.

Every. Single. Day.

“Why do you even want to go back there? The place sounds like a living hell,” No matter what the reasoning, I knew in the back of my mind the reason why he would go to such lengths.

* * *

 

He had me at a loss – once again.

The idea was tempting to say the least.

I would be lying if I didn’t admit that the implications of his words didn’t ring throughout my mind, and that a voice in the back of my mind told me that it was a wonderful opportunity. The place that I came from had its terribly dark moments, for many people – and some terrible moments for me. I had seen countless loved ones torn apart, destroyed and killed by the evilness.

This place, it seemed to be the most extreme antithesis of that.

If I didn’t understand that this was an alternative universe, I would think that it wasn’t real. At some point, aside from the age difference between the Bruce that I knew – and _this_ one – their paths diverged. One Bruce took the path to become Batman, and the other threw himself into his family’s business empire – and avoided the struggle that turned _my_ Bruce into Batman.

Expect that was just it – this wasn’t my Bruce.

This Bruce had done things differently and still managed to cling to his humanity.

My Bruce, at some point, became an almost mythical figure, a god among men, a folk hero to everyday people that were stepped on by those who did wrong. _That_ Bruce was someone with such an iron determination to make the world a safer place that he was willing to sacrifice most of what he had and risk _everything_ that he had – thankfully, he usually one, but he gambled.

But I still wouldn’t have it any other way.

I loved Bruce, I always had – and I was always willing to take the risk he put me in.

My love for him and the love we had for each other had taken many forms over the years – but the constant was our loyalty for each other. I made him a promise, a very long time ago – that I would be by his side until the very end, and no matter how much this paradise called to me – I couldn’t stay here. There was no way that I could abandon Bruce for this picturesque world.

“I can’t do that that,” I shook my head and locked eyes with him. “Even if I wanted to do that – I couldn’t do that to Bruce. I owe him my life, among other things – I can’t betray that.”

“Is that why you’re screwing the man who raised you? Because you feel like you owe him?” Bruce’s tone suddenly became icy, and I could feel my left eye twitch, and twitch again.

“I’m fucking the man that I’ve been in love with for nearly half my life,” I put my hands on my hips and glared at him. “And I’m not going to stay here, because besides wanting to get back to the man that I’ve loved for nearly half my life – this place isn’t the place that I know.”

_And you’re not the Bruce that I’ve loved my entire adult life._

Those words echoed out in their unspoken implication – and that was that.

That was why I couldn’t stay here.

I hoped that he could accept it.


	5. Part V: Meandering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh my, this was hard to write, here's hoping that it tides you over until the next time.

**Part V: Meandering**

**Dick’s Point of View**

Even in the early morning hours – I knew that this Gotham City was different.

Its city blocks were not tinged by decades of runaway crime and rampant violence. The people on the streets seemed perfectly at ease to be out in the middle of the night – not having to look over their shoulder and be armed to teeth to stop a mugger or an attacker. I had spent most of my life on these streets and buildings at night, fighting those very same people – and from that perspective, this sight seemed almost too good to be true. As this Bruce had explained to me, there was a cop on every corner and judges that were not afraid to do their jobs.

But overall, a deep pride that Gotham was, at least statistically, one of the safest cities big cities in America.

There wasn’t even any damned litter on the street, which I realized with a chortle.

“The facility requires a three-day clearance from the Military,” Bruce murmured from beside me, and I turned to see him staring out of the limousine window. “I technically own the facility and I need one too – until we can leave, you’ll stay with me."

I felt a shiver go down my spine.

In this aspect, at the very least, the Bruce from my existence and the one sitting next to me were one in the same – they knew how to give orders, and knew how to make me unconsciously obey. Again, it was one of those many critiques of the turn that our relationship had taken – the power that he over me, that he could make me submit with a simple inflection in his voice. Some felt that the relationship and the conditioning that he had instilled in me as Robin was bad enough - but once they knew that we were together romantically, it reached a new level. 

What they didn’t know was that I absolutely loved it – and if I wanted to, I could tell him no.

Sometimes even Bruce needed to understand that he was not the absolute master of his world all the time, and I could easily admit that I had received many a sadistic pleasure from the absolute shock that Bruce exuded whenever I disobeyed him.  

In this instance, I would obey.

I was tired, I was sore – and I was frankly dirty.

And Bruce was a safe place – he was safety.

“Do you live in the manor?” I fixed him with a stare.

Much to my surprise, Bruce turned to me and offered a bit of a sardonic smile at the mention of the manor.

Even after these years, and even when it was a clearly mocking smile – it shocked me to see the movement ever grace Bruce Wayne’s lips.

Alternate version of him or not, Bruce’s smiles were precious things, rare.

“The moment I came into my inheritance, I turned it into a museum and moved out,” The right side of his lips twitched. “Are you telling me that your Bruce lives there?”

“Yes,” I looked down to my lap – I couldn’t believe I was having this talk. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s a warm home when he’s not in one of his moods. But when he gets in his moods, it becomes a monument to his self-pity and becomes a miserable place.”

“Why didn’t you move out?” His voice had grown soft.

I looked up, “I did – for a little a while, and even when I moved back in – I kept a penthouse in the city. That place isn’t a place to be when he gets in one of his-…”

“Moods, I heard you,” Bruce interrupted.

I looked over at him.

He was so good-looking that it was hard to put any words. He didn’t have the bulkiness of my Bruce, who had years of intense training to build up his upper body – but that didn’t make him any less attractive.

This Bruce was all youth, all lean upper body and the embodiment of every single dream – money, looks, youth, intelligence.

I could easily admit how tempting this was – I wasn’t that dishonest.

However, I couldn’t admit to him how tempted I was by this world.

It was perfect – it was utterly perfect, it seemed to be the net result of the dream that Bruce had nearly blindly chased for most of his life. From what I seemed now, it seemed utterly perfect – not forcibly perfect as some of the other alternate existence seemed. The Superheroes did not need to take over the entire world to make it safe.

“I couldn’t stay there any longer,” He murmured from beside me and he seemed to be off in his own world at the mention of the manor. “I did everything that I could to avoid the place as I got older, every corner that I turned reminded me of my parents.”

It was safe to say that it was the same with my Bruce – and that thought _boggled_ my mind. It must have been tortuous for Bruce to live in the manor – and with that line of thought, it did make sense to me. Bruce liked to torture himself with the past, with the tragedies of his past and he liked to fob them all onto himself. He honestly believed, no matter how irrational it was, and no matter how much we told him otherwise, that his parents death was his fault. He believed that all the tragedy he’d seen was his fault.

Perhaps that was the strongest difference between this one and that one.

This one had removed himself from the impetus of Batman.

In yet another dark corner of my mind, I could admit to myself that the difference between this Bruce Wayne and the other was the biggest temptation that I had felt.

But even that, even the prospect of a Bruce Wayne that was even mildly emotionally healthy was not enough for me to give up everything that I knew in that other existence. It was insane, especially from me – who could only dream of an emotionally stable Bruce Wayne – but I couldn’t give him up. Maybe somehow, I knew that Bruce wouldn’t make it without me – or perhaps I liked to believe that. Either way, I knew that I could not leave him – I couldn’t leave him and the others to that existence.

* * *

 

**Prime Universe**

**The Batcave – Wayne Manor**

**Bruce’s Point of View**

I pursed my lips and crossed my arms over my chest.

I had trusted Tim with this task, and I hoped that my body language conveyed no illusions as to what I was feeling.

I needed Dick back, I needed to make sure that he was safe and I needed to make sure that wherever the witch had sent him – it wasn’t putting him in any harm. I suppose that if need be, I was ready to march into whatever alternate reality that Dick had been forced to into with an entire army at my back.

“What did you find?” I locked eyes with him.

Tim blew out a sigh and looked down to the wand, “I might have determined where she sent Dick, might – but I’ve also discovered a fall back on using the wand.”

I raised my right eyebrow in a wordless demand for him to continue.

I did not miss the fact that Tim’s eye twitched in barely-constrained annoyance.

I’d have to apologize when this entire ordeal was over.

“I can send you through with the wand, but I can’t get you back – once you’re through to wherever he’s at – you’ll need to find a way back from the other side,” Tim placed his hands on his hips and turned to the screen beside him on the table. “As you can see with these calculations, any trans-dimensional round trip would be impossible.”

“And you’re sure of this?” My voice was clipped.

It wasn’t Tim’s fault that this was happening.

“Aside from the fact that I tested it out myself, and couldn’t retrieve the object, I asked the witch herself and she confirms this theory,” He turned away from the monitor and back to the wand. “At most, I can get you to the location that he was deposited in.”

That was fine enough.

“And do you have any clue as to what environment Dick is in?”

“Yes,” Tim answered and he turned back to the screen to bring up a map.

And when I realized just exactly what I was looking at – I cocked my head.

What were the odds?

* * *

 

**Dick’s Point of View**

**Bruce Wayne’s Penthouse**

I folded my arms over my chest and stared out at the cityscape.

The facility was in Germany, buried deep within the Bavarian Alps – guarded and covered by an American Military Base – with only the highest officials of NATO having even a hint of the facility and its existence. It was, in some respects, safest place on the planet – if not the most secretive and heavily guarded place as well. It was so deep within the mountain that the most advanced technologies couldn’t detect its existence, and it could withstand a direct hit from a Nuclear Weapon with an average blast yield.

“I just got off the phone with the facility director, and his technicians are attempting to see if they’ve got something that can help you,” Bruce’s voice was quiet as it approached me from behind. “They’ll have an answer for us as soon as they can.”

“What if I never get back?” I voiced the darkest, quietest thought of my mind.

“Well, I can’t promise you that you’ll ever get back to where you’re from, but I would just advise you to try and look at the positives,” I turned my head to find the now shirtless Bruce flanking me and staring off through the window. “You were sent here, to Earth, to Gotham – to me. It might be a slightly different Earth, a slightly different Gotham and a very different me – but you could have ended up in a war-zone.”

True.

But it didn’t help – it just didn’t help.

I had to get home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Midway through writing this, it dawned on me that I had dragged this section out far too long. 
> 
> This part is, as we the scientific community call it, "filler" 
> 
> We'll begin the final arc in the next part - with Part 10 looking at being the conclusion. 
> 
> Until next time!


End file.
